Request a Callback

Straw Slams Car Insurance Fees

While there are many good deals for Car Warranties, premiums for car insurance have reached "extortionate" levels, according to former Home Secretary Jack Straw. Straw, who is the Labour MP for Blackburn, says that "perfectly law-abiding people" who live in the Northwest of Britain are being especially badly hit by the exorbitantly high price of car insurance, telling the House of Commons Transport Committee that some of the people involved in the industry were "parasites... engaged in bribery."

Straw notes that car insurance companies making what are known as "cold calls" to customers are another nuisance, noting that he had been contacted just this week to ask if he had been involved in a motor accident recently.

The committee's chairperson, Louise Elman, noted that the same thing had also recently happened to her. "I don't know how they got hold of my ex-directory phone number" she notes. "Claims management companies are parasitic" Straw said. "In any other walk of life, we would describe this racket by referral companies as bribery. These practices are leading to very substantial (insurance) increases on law-abiding motorists."

Elman responded by saying that the price of car insurance is now levelling out after a spike in recent times, but the Chief Executive Officer of insurance company AXA UK, Paul Evans, has contradicted that claim, noting that while the increases had slowed to a rate of about 1% to 2% per month - that still meant that more increases were coming.